Confessionals
by Kaesteranya
Summary: Short, short drabbles for Sora & Riku, and sometimes, the ghosts of Axel and Roxas hovering over them.
1. Whispers

**Whispers**

_Spoilers for the later parts of the game._

* * *

Because he had only really talked to Axel once, Sora knew the feelings he had and the memories he possessed were not his own. Most of the time they were only images, brief and soundless portraits of a Nobody who had gone against his very being out of friendship and paid the ultimate price for it. Sometimes they were short films of Axel through the eyes of that other, and they always left Sora with an ache inside that he couldn't put his finger on.

Master Yen Sid had told him that Nobodies were half-people who played at being real and knew not what emotions were. A Keyblade master could not afford to be fooled, and so Sora had believed him. Remembering the look in Axel's eyes and the smile on his lips as he faded away, however, was enough to shake Sora's faith.


	2. The chrysanthemum promise

**The chrysanthemum promise**

_Written for a prompt from a friend: "Disarm the Dream Tickler", which I believe she took from a song by OLIVIA. Note that I am not familiar with canon beyond the main games (1 & 2), so I dunno how accurate this is in the long run, given the final mixes and stuff._

_The title is taken from the 31 Days theme for February 12, 2006._

* * *

Sora had once told Riku that he dreamt of Roxas, his other self, sometimes. They were never bad ones, but they were good in a way that Sora couldn't relate to, or so the young Keyblade Master said. His Roxas dreams were always full of images of Axel, that flame master from Organization XIII who had sacrificed his life for a cause not entirely lost.

That day, Riku told Sora that maybe, the two of them had been in love. He watched Sora as the younger boy went through the usual cycle of shock-weirded out-shock-disbelief-shock-weirded out. He withheld his own opinion and sat there, listening to Sora splutter and speculate and try to understand what he considered irrational and generally impossible. Whenever Sora looked for him to agree, Riku only smiled. When they finally went their separate ways with promises to hook up for some island boating in the morning with Kairi, Riku was left to go back to his empty home and wonder how long it was going to take and how much he was going to lose before it happened.


	3. I got my secret weapon

**I got my secret weapon**

_This was kinda sorta written for a prompt from a friend: "You were there for summer dreaming / and you are a friend indeed / and I know you find your freedom". Also, the title is taken from the 31 Days theme for July 2, 2006._

* * *

Sometimes, in between exterminating Heartless and walking the long roads that connected the different worlds to each other, Sora found his thoughts drifting away from Kairi and more towards Riku, the only friend he might hold even closer to his heart than he did Donald and Goofy, his own traveling companions. He supposed that it shouldn't have been surprising: he was certain that Kairi was safe, but he could only wonder what might have become of Riku in spite of the King's assurances that all would be well. What truly made him wonder was the particular _trajectory _of his Riku-centric thoughts. They were always flashbacks on their routine sparring sessions out on Riku's favorite spot on the deserted island, out where the smell of the sea and the sound of the waves were strongest. What he remembered most vividly weren't his almost constant and always crushing defeats as he would have expected, but small, insignificant details and snippets of conversation. Things like how Riku looked silhouetted against the sunset, or the feel of his callused fingers on Sora's arm as they went through their stances together, or the way his voice echoed low and right into Sora's ears.

Although he was the Keyblade Master and designated savior of the worlds in case of apocalyptic-level emergencies, Sora wasn't in the habit of dwelling on why things were the way they were in his life – this was the reason he chose not to think too much about the particular strangeness of his feelings for Riku. What he was certain of was that the remembrance of those sparring sessions kept him going in the long run, and the lessons he had walked away with were the reason why he could fight.


End file.
